The Beatles Albums – White Album

Today considered one of the most important albums in music history, this stark white album bearing nothing but “The BEATLES” in small raised letters was met with great anticipation by  the throngs of Beatles fans eager for a Beatles fix.  Hitting the shelves in November of 1968–11 months after Magical Mystery Tour had taken us on a “mystery trip”—The Beatles both bewildered and elated record buyers accustomed to seeing ever-more fantastic cover art that hinted at what lie waiting inside.  Few imagined that a flat-out masterpiece was actually in hand. 

Quickly becoming known on the streets as “The WhiteAlbum,” The Beatles (the band’s ninth official studio album) effectively smashed the Pop/Rock album template—as only the Beatles could.  Not only did this two-album, 30-track collection clock in at an unprecedented 93 minutes, it did the unthinkable: it shared the Fab Fours’ spotlight with eight guest musicians (including Beatles road manager and personal assistant Mal Evans, Cream guitarist Eric Clapton, and Beatle wives Pattie Harrison, Maureen Starkey, and Yoko Ono) and utilized dozens of session players.   

The Fab Four – Viva Las Vegas

Las Vegas is Beatles town, except for the casino slot machines, one thing Elvis (one of the band’s biggest influences), has over the FabFour.   

Las Vegas is home to a lot of things that hardcore Beatles fans would not like to miss. There’s the theatrical production Love which is performed by Cirque du Soleil in a purpose-built theater at The Mirage. The brainchild of Paul McCartney and Guy Laliberte, one of Cirque’s founders, Love has been a staple at the popular casino for years now and continues to draw a huge audience.   

The Beatles Albums – The Beatles/1967–1970, “The Blue Album”

For all intents and purposes, The Beatles album entitled The Beatles/1967—1970 could have been titled The Singles, Volume Two.   

Released in April of 1973, this companion piece to The Beatles/1962—1966 essentially picks-up where the former leaves off–presenting all the single A-sides released in the U. K. during those latter years. Like the so-called “Red Album,” the “Blue Album” features the familiar shot of the Beatles looking down over the stairwell in EMI’s London headquarters—this time sporting the much longer hairstyle they came to be noted for–and adopted by Hippies from Haight-Ashbury to Greenwich Village; Paris to Hong Kong.   

The Beatles Albums – The Beatles 1962-1966 Red Album

The Beatles ‘Red Album’ was Released in April of 1973 – along with its complement collection, The Beatles 1967–1970 (aka The Blue Album).   

The Beatles/1962—1966 featuring the distinctive shot of the Beatles looking down over the stairwell in EMI’s London headquarters (familiar to U. K. fans as the cover image of the ’63 four-song EP The Beatles [No. 1) is by design a compilation of all the single A-sides released in the U. K. during those early years.   

Said to have been compiled and distributed partly in response to the four-album, 120-minute boxed-set bootleg Alpha Omega (sold mail-order on TV the year before) and partly to expose a new buying public to the Beatles phenomenon, the so-called “Red Album” provides glimpses of some 10 or more albums released in the U. S., U. K., and Canada—drawing heavily on the masterful, Rubber Soul.   

The Beatles Albums – The Beatles Anthology 2

Released by Apple Records in March of 1996, the Beatles Anthology 2 is the second instalment of the three-volume The Beatles albums, Anthology collection, linked to The Beatles Anthology TV documentary first aired in November of 1995. as three feature-length episodes in the U. S. and six edited installments in the U. K.   

Packaged in a collage of magical Beatles moments and presented on two CDs, these 45 tracks (40 different compositions) span the years 1965 to 1969–with the exception of “Real Love,” one of two Lennon demos recorded at his Dakota apartment in 1979.  In addition to Lennon-McCartney compositions, Beatles Anthology 2 includes John’s take on Chuck Berry’s classic “Rock and Roll Music,” George’s rendition of the Carl Perkins Rock-a-Billy standard “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby” (recorded live at Shea Stadium in August of 1965), as well as the Harrison-penned, “Taxman,” “Within You and Without You,” and “Only a Northern Song.”  (No Ringo songs are included.)   

The Beatles Album Covers – The Beatles Anthology 1

In 1995, Apple Records released a trilogy of albums to coincide with the television special entitled “The Beatles Anthology”. The first of these, Anthology 1, contained a “new” Beatles song, an unreleased Free As a Bird. Each album was a double disk containing some never-before-released material.   

It was only suitable that the images to accompany these old and “new” tracks were also a compilation of photos. Nothing speaks better to this artistic theme than a collage.   

The inspiration for all three album covers came from Klaus Voorman. He created three covers that, when laid side-by-side, would become a long collage representing different stages of the band’s career thus far. He collected his images from previous albums, posters and other photos and used a torn edge to give the impression that these were pages of an assorted story. Like the boys themselves, nothing was regular and predictable; there is a reflection of change, imperfection and something different and unexpected. Perhaps a few secrets lay in between.   

“Helter Skelter” Towards Tragedy

During their reign as the most successful pop group of all time, the Beatles recorded songs that were  ground breaking, songs that were influential, and songs that were wildly controversial.  But probably none of them achieved the notoriety of “Helter Skelter.”

With its stuttering, dissonant guitars, relentlessly smashing cymbals and shouted vocals, “Helter Skelter” was a true departure from form for the Beatles.

It was also ahead of its time: in style and tone it resembled nothing so much as punk, which was not to gain prominence until almost a decade later. Somewhat surprisingly, The Beatles song “Helter Skelter” was composed and sung by Paul McCartney, who is usually associated with the more melodic and commercially accessible aspects of the Beatles’ music. Many fans believed that this raucous, chaotic, raw song had really been composed by John Lennon; for his part, Lennon consistently stated that “Helter Skelter” was completely Paul’s creation.